When a device, e.g., a cellular telephone, malfunctions, or when its owner believes it is malfunctioning, assistance is required. Presently, the device owner may bring the device to the appropriate vendor for in-person assistance. However, not every vendor provides an in-person technician with the necessary skills at its store. In the alternative, the device owner may transport the device to the appropriate vendor/fix-it location for remote assistance. However, the device owner must cope without the device for an extended period due to, e.g., transportation time. In the alternative, the device owner may telephone the customer service representative for assistance. However, the customer service representative must rely on the device owner's characterization of the device malfunction and sometimes proper diagnosis is not possible.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a remote customer service representative or other person to be able to view and test a device remotely. Many obstacles are inherent in such a plan. For example, modern video-conferencing requires that a caller know the specific dialing extension to establish a video-conferencing session with a known party. However, in the context of customer assistance the called party is unknown and a customer must locate an appropriate customer service representative or other person with sufficient skill to address the malfunction. Once located, the customer service representative must be able to view the device essentially in real-time. However, modern video-conferencing techniques demonstrate the inefficiencies of such communication given the large amount of data due to the video to be transmitted. Accordingly, there exists a further need for a remote viewing and testing of a device in an efficient manner. Further, since a customer may not be sophisticated with respect to the technology, there exists a need for an easy to use system which enables customers to easily locate skilled assistance providers.